Welsh farmers urge EU to rethink CAP greening rules

Reducing the burden of red tape surrounding the CAP and the continuing milk price crisis were the two key issues discussed when NFU Cymru representatives met with Rebecca Evans AM, Deputy Minister for Food and Farming today.

EU Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan, has put CAP simplification as his priority for 2015 and as part of this process NFU Cymru presented a paper to the Deputy Minister listing the areas which the Union believe need to be urgently reviewed.

Greening rules, mapping requirements and a more proportionate approach to sanctions were the key areas that NFU Cymru asked the Deputy Minister to prioritise as part of her discussions with the Commission on CAP simplification.

NFU Cymru President Stephen James said, “In a country such as Wales where only about 5% of our land area is in arable cropping we should be encouraging more farmers to consider growing crops to reduce our reliance on bought feeds, but, in our opinion, the greening rules as currently written actively discourage this.

“We would ask that the Commission urgently review the detailed greening rules, in the interim given the exceptional circumstances we find ourselves in for 2015 with a new CAP in place but many still unclear on the rules. Given how late the Commission has been in providing guidance, a light touch must be taken with regards to enforcement to allow for unintentional errors that may occur.”

Mr James continued, “A new CAP brings new rules, guidance notes surrounding mapping, declaring land and completing the single application form and other elements run into many hundreds of pages. Farmers and their agents will do their utmost to complete the application correctly but with the best will in the world there will be errors as a result of misinterpretation of the new rules. We asked the Deputy Minister to do everything possible to ensure that farmers are not unfairly penalised as a result of the unnecessary complexities brought into the new CAP.”

On cross compliance NFU Cymru asked the Deputy Minister to push for Commission auditors to come forward with clear guidance with regards to the use of warning letters for cases of minor non-compliance and to allow for tolerances with regards to animal identification rules, particularly with regards to Sheep EID.

On dairy matters Stephen James said, “I remain upbeat about the long term prospects for the Welsh dairy sector, but there is a crisis of confidence in our industry at present with cash flow a serious issue for all dairy producers. We have to do all we can to support the sector in the here and now.

Mr James concluded, “Whilst we accept that Government cannot influence the market we look to the publication of Andy Richardson’s Independent Review of the Dairy Sector in Wales and the Welsh Government’s response, alongside the targeted use of the Wales RDP to support productive agriculture, as opportunities for Government to assist the sector.”